Please read the following quotes and then decide about whom is the writer talking?

Quote one: “He would avoid as much as possible getting sidetracked on other issues” other than the economy.

Quote two: “He had run as a businessman and an outsider who vowed that he would be the CEO governor.”

Naturally it’s Gov. Rick Snyder. Except author Dan Balz of the Washington Post is writing about Mitt Romney. As you plow through his “Collision 2012” tome on the last presidential election, one is struck by the striking similarities between the former Massachusetts governor and the one in Michigan.

If not two peas in a pod, they certainly come from the same pea patch i.e., rich, great business resumes and a desire to serve.

Mr. Balz’s narrative is a wonderful journey into the ups and downs of the Obama vs. Romney campaigns and along the way you see Mr. Snyder’s image elsewhere.

The author describes Mr. Romney, who lacked a “clear political identity,” as leaving many conservatives wondering if “he was truly one of them.”

Geez if that isn’t Mr. Snyder, who is? Conservatives here sift Snyder's checkered record as he zigs and zags here and there and find him lacking in many areas. Think Medicaid expansion and the bridge.

He also vetoed the photo ID voting law and an abortion provision in a Blue Cross measure that Right to Life wanted. RTL opposed stem cell research, which the governor supports. Liberals loved that. Right-wingers, not so much.

EPIC-MRA pollster Bernie Porn suggests “there is confusion out there” as voters of all stripes wonder, who is this guy?

They share another dominant gene. Mr. Romney can be forceful when he needs to be and those who have chronicled Mr. Snyder suggest there is that side to him as well.

Take the pressure on Mr. Romney after President Obama got his Affordable Health Care Act. Conservative Republicans blamed Mr. Romney for providing the template for ObamaCare.

Advisors strongly urged the GOP candidate to disavow his own plan. Mr. Balz writes that “fifteen persons a day tell him…to repudiate it, it’s a mistake, ask for forgiveness” from the right wing.

Finally after his pollster laid the groundwork for Mr. Romney to wiggle out from under this perceived political albatross, the candidate blurted out, “I’m not walking away from it.” End of discussion.

Mr. Snyder has had similar experiences on programs he wanted but was told by senior advisors they were non-starters politically. Yet there is the pension tax on some seniors that he pushed because, “It was the right thing to do.”

Strangely you also discover similarities between this governor and President Obama of all people. Neither are big “schmoozers” with legislators even though they know they need that rapport. And both have been tagged with doing the relationship-thing but only when they want something from the other guys.

The president was described as having “minimal” ties to his own Democratic Party. With Snyder, even though he was a delegate for Gerald Ford when he ran for president, he is not a dyed-in-the-wool Republican who lives and breathes this stuff day in and day out. Given his druthers, he’d rather water ski or as we saw the other day, take a jump in the lake.

Heck a Tea Party member suggested that if 2010 had “been a Democratic year, Mr. Snyder would have run as a Democrat.” He might refute the statement but there is no doubt that this governor is not as highly partisan in this office as other governors.

Democrats may take heart from all this as they hope Mr. Snyder and Mr. Romney share something else in common: A loss on Election day.

Let’s just say, Mr. Snyder is working on a happier ending - which does not include asking Mr. Romney to join him on the campaign trail.

Watch "Off the Record with Tim Skubick" online anytime at video.wkar.org